Senior students as peer-teachers in laboratory classes: Impacts and insights

Abstract

This paper reports on the pathway for selecting and supporting casual laboratory demonstrators (teaching assistants) in undergraduate electrical engineering programs, and the outcomes that came with this systematic approach. In particular, many more senior undergraduate students were employed, to complement the research students, in the role of laboratory demonstrators. The success of the program relied on a centralized approach for selection, allocation, and training of the demonstrators. This explains how the changes led to better interest by senior undergraduates in the job of demonstrator, and the benefits of such staff being peer-teachers, notably those of both peer-to-peer learning and structured mentoring. It also explores the effect of the employment on the senior students.